Handbook on Key Digital Skills for Youth Participation
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HANDBOOK ON KEY DIGITAL SKILLS FOR YOUTH PARTICIPATION A PROJECT FUNDED UNDER THE ERASMUS+ PROGRAM KA3 ACTION – SUPPORT FOR POLICY REFORM GRANT NO. 2018-3-IT03-KA347-014740 ROBERTO PAURA, DANIELA PORPIGLIA, MARA DI BERARDO EDITORS ITALIAN INSTITUTE FOR THE FUTURE VIA GABRIELE JANNELLI 390 – 80131 NAPOLI WWW.INSTITUTEFORTHEFUTURE.IT [email protected] ISBN 978-88-99790-20-2 FOREWORD __________________________________________________________________ T.A.K.E. PART - Transnational Activities for Key digital skills in Engagement and youth PARTicipation is an Erasmus+ funded project led by the Italian Institute for the Future and the European Movement Albania with the aim of facing the growing disaffection of the younger generations towards politics at local, national and European level as a serious threat to democracy and inclusiveness of the whole European Union, through a structured dialogue initiative. T.A.K.E. PART has been implemented on the basis of the priorities highlighted by the EU Youth Conference, held in Sofia in 2018 in the framework of the 6th Structured Dialogue Cycle “What’s Next?”, focusing its action on the 11 strategic objectives that emerged and, specifically, on goal 3 concerning a greater involvement of young people in participatory and constructive dialogue with policy makers, and goal 9 for the strengthening of young people’s democratic participation and autonomy in all spheres of civil society. IIF and EMA developed the project with the general objective to promote a discussion among young people on the state of the art of digital democracy tools currently used in their countries, in particular – on the basis of the principle of subsidiarity – at the level of municipalities, and to propose a strategy to implement these tools in the coming years in order to ensure their wider participation and greater integration in the policy-making process. T.A.K.E. PART involved 100 young participants from Albania and Italy (aged between 19 and 30) in a transnational structured dialogue initiative on digital democracy through two actions, both organized in Naples, Italy, the first in June 2019 and the second in November 2019. GOALS __________________________________________________________________ Several were the project’s strategic goals. First of all, it aimed at enabling young citizens to understand the dynamics of digital democratic processes, encouraging their greater participation in political life: to this end, the participants were initially involved in a preparation phase organized in each country, focusing on the issues related to the global challenges of digital democracy and the best practices implemented at the level of municipalities, both in the City of Naples and the City of Tirana, as well as in other European cities, in order to assess the state of the art of the methodologies of direct participation of citizens, through digital tools, in local deliberative processes. During the two transnational seminars, participants discussed with 1 experts and policy-makers on the issues of digital democracy and youth participation in local deliberative processes, working on practical proposals to be implemented in the future. Secondly, T.A.K.E. PART tried to create a space for communication and dialogue between young people and decision-makers: the whole project was built in order to allow participants to carry out different phases of structured dialogue with experts and political representatives. In the preparatory phase, the young people involved discussed with the local administrators responsible for youth policy in the cities of Naples and Tirana and discussed with them the open issues related to digital democracy. During the final phase, participants made proposals that have been included in this Handbook, which includes both the analyses carried out during the preparatory phases on best practices in European digital democracy and concrete proposals in terms of methodologies and practices to be implemented to enhance the active involvement of young citizens in decision-making processes through digital tools. The young participants were also able to learn about the deliberative processes of the institutions in which decisions are taken that have a direct impact on their future: both in the preparatory phase and during the transnational activities they deepened their knowledge about the democratic and participatory dynamics of European countries, thanks also to the comparison with the experts involved. Participants were asked to identify some best practices tested in Europe in order to evaluate them through SWOT analysis: Decidim, Liquid Feedback, Rousseau and Participa were taken as an example and, on the basis of the ideas that emerged, an analysis was carried out on their applicability in local governments in Europe. TRANSNATIONAL DIALOGUE SEMINARS __________________________________________________________________ The two transnational seminars were organized from 10 to 14 June and from 11 to 15 November 2019 in Naples, structuring the program in a similar way for both seminars. In both cases, four working groups were created on platform democracy, participatory democracy, social democracy and democratic awareness respectively. Experts on these four areas were invited to dialogue with the young people during the seminar activities. In particular, the following experts have been involved: ▪ Paolo Bory, Postdoctoral researcher and Lecturer in media studies at Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), Switzerland. ▪ Antonio Camorrino, Researcher at University of Napoli Federico II, where he teaches Sociology of culture and communication, and a member of the scientific committee of the Italian Institute for the Future. ▪ Stefano De Luca, Associate Professor of History of Political Doctrines at the University of Napoli Suor Orsola Benincasa and Visiting-Professor at the University of Strasbourg. 2 ▪ Rosanna De Rosa, Professor at the University of Napoli Federico II, where she teaches Political communication and Public and institutional communication. ▪ Mara Di Berardo, co-chiar of the Millennium Project Italian Node, and Research Fellow of the Italian National Research Council. ▪ Piero Dominici, Fellow of the World Academy of Art & Science (WAAS), Director (Scientific Listening) at the Global Listening Center and Scientific Director of the Complexity Education Project. ▪ Sabrina Franceschini, Head of the Citizenhip Communication Area at the Regione Emilia-Romagna. ▪ Gabriele Giacomini, Research Fellow at the Laboratory of New Media at the University of Udine and at the Center for Ethics and Politics at the University San Raffaele of Milan. ▪ Vincenzo Luise, Research Fellow at the Network for the Advancement of Social and Political Studies at the University of Milan, and a co-founder of the Italian Institute for the Future. ▪ Rinaldo Mattera, fellow of the Center for the Study of Digital Democracy at the University of Napoli Suor Orsola Benincasa. ▪ Stefano Oricchio, PhD student in ‘Politics, culture and development’ at the University of Calabria. ▪ Luca Recano, PhD student in International Studies at University of Naples “L’Orientale”, a member of the “Technoculture Research Unit” and of the “Observatory on Emerging Commons of the City of Naples”. ▪ Francesco Marrazzo, Sociologist at AGCOM, the National Regulator Authority for Communications, where he serves in the Department of Economics and Statistics. ▪ Mauro Santaniello, Researcher at the University of Salerno, where he is Assistant Professor in Internet Governance and Policy. ▪ Emmanuele Somma, former member of the Computer Society and the Free Software Foundation Europe, member of GlobalLeaks. During the two transnational seminars, the working groups applied the Shell Scenario methodology, with the aim of imagining the possible future evolution of megatrends that will impact the issues of democracy and digital with a 2030 horizon. In this way, after analyzing the current state of the art, they were able to work out their project proposals in an anticipatory perspective, looking at the changes of the next ten years and developing solutions that can respond to the evolution of the European democratic and digital system. 3 In line with the goals of a structured dialogue, T.A.K.E. PART involved political representatives both at local and national level, in all phases of the activities. At local level, EMA and IIF have involved since their preparatory meetings political decision-makers responsible for both youth policies and digital democracy policies. Specifically, IIF has involved the Department of Youth, Creativity and Innovation of the City of Naples, which promoted the call of participants and logistically supported the organization of the meetings, providing space for preparatory activities and transnational seminars. The Councilor in charge, Alessandra Clemente, took part in both June and November sessions, discussing with the participants the feasibility in the local context of the proposed measures. In a similar way, in the November session was involved the Councilor Carmine Piscopo, owner of the Department of Common Goods, Digitalization and Participatory Democracy of the City of Naples. Two sessions were also organized at the Municipality 8 of Naples, on the invitation of the President of the Municipality, with the aim of opening the project to the most complex contexts of the urban periphery (the municipality hosts the districts of Scampia and Secondigliano). The June session was attended by the President of the City Council of Naples,